7 comments
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WOW!!! WAY TO GO HUBBY!!!! Ironically we have a crew outside building a big pergola at our house right this very second!!! Yours looks awesome!!! I can't wait to see what a change it makes to our house tonight when they are done! :-)Way to go working so hard to turn around your credit!! As far as moving. Oh my….it's SO HARD to move from the home you bring your baby home to. When we sold our first house I seriously cried for nearly a week and felt such a sadness for a long while. I was def. not emotionally prepared for that. It took me by such surprise since I'm not usually a very "soft" or emotional person. But no matter what you guys do it will be a fun adventure. A place to grow your family and make lots of new memories!! I will say, we did the buy existing route with the perfect floor plan and really good build/structure and planned to make the updates ourselves…We get such a thrill out of DIY and seeing reno's through ourselves BUUUUUT it's really difficult financially and time wise with kids (as you already know) but once we had our son. OH MY…..Whew. TWO kids totally changed the ball game on how quickly we could cross off the to-do list! Anyways, I can't wait to see what you all do! You have fabulous style and work ethic so no matter what you choose its going to be amazing!!

Your backyard looks amazing - you guys did such a great job with that pergola (no idea they were called that haha). I thought that my boyfriend and I would be renting for a lot longer than a year (two for him) - but next week we move into our new condo and I'm so excited. It's going to be more money per month but I love knowing that we're paying into something that down the road (4-5 years or so) will pay off when we either sell it or rent it out... It's such a huge step!! And it seems like you guys are on the right track for your next steps too - so exciting!! I can imagine it would be tough to part with a home that you've made so special and that has so many great memories. Hopefully you're able to rent it out, but if not you will definitely get to make some great new memories when you do move. :):)

One of my teachers in middle school constantly reminded our class about her son that was swimming in credit card debt. IT seriously scared the crap out of me. I didn't get a credit card until I was 19 and even then I never bought anything on it I didn't have money in the bank to pay it off with right then. I only used my credit card to build credit. I am so glad for that amazing teacher that taught me such a valuable lesson. I am happy you guys were able to get out of it though, such a burden lifted I am sure.

Great post! I am so happy you wrote about where you are today and how you got here - it is so easy to relate to you. I am 23 and I face some of the same obstacles as you! My husband and I bought our first home 2 years ago and knew we had to renovate our basement into an in law suite to rent out (this was the only way we could afford our home). Also, our house was a bit out dated so we but some money into our home to increase the value. Personally I would choose buying over renting if you are able to afford a down payment. Renting is sort of like paying for a dead horse. And I would love to build my own home someday! It may be stressful in that sense but start planning your dream future home now - thank goodness for pinterest and houzz :) Your pergola looks amazing btw!

I really appreciate your sharing about buying a house. I, too, had terrible credit from too much shopping and married a man with excellent credit. We haven't quite paid down the debt completely, but we are working on it. Your post helped me realize that it can happen even if it takes some time! I came across your blog from your video review of the Graco Modes stroller and noticed our babies are near in age so I thought I'd check out your blog. I'm glad I did!

Reading this I felt like this was my life story as well!! You were definitely not the only 20 year old that had maxed out credit cards. I had awful credit and my husband always wanted to buy a house. We ended up living with my parents for awhile so I could get all the debt I'd accumulated for credit cards, that had gone into collections as well, paid off and boost my credit score. I know how you feel when you say it was embarrassing going to the bank and learning you have awful credit. Thank goodness for husbands that love us and keep us to minimal shopping ( I still get bad when it comes to shopping sometimes though).

We finally bought a house (again, like you, after months of house hunting we got a fixer upper) and we always said it would just be our starter house, we only want to be there 5 years or so (it's been 6). Fix it up and sell it. We've thought about expanding our family (we have a son that's almost 2) and I just don't think we will have enough space so I've been looking at other places. Our dream as well would be to keep the house we're in and use it as a rental and then buy land and build our dream house that we would be in forever. Unfortunately we live about 30 minutes north of Seattle and there aren't a lot of options for land in the areas we want to be in and what we can find wouldn't allow us to keep our current house as well. Thinking about leaving our current home though is so hard. We brought our puppy and our son home here. We worked SO hard to make this place our home. We have an excellent neighborhood and neighbors that have become best friends. So why would we leave? It's hard.